Mélanie Joly

The Honourable
Mélanie Joly
PC MP
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Assumed office
November 4, 2015
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Preceded by Shelly Glover
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Ahuntsic-Cartierville
Assumed office
October 19, 2015
Preceded by Maria Mourani
Personal details
Born (1979-01-16) January 16, 1979
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political party Liberal
Relations Clément Joly (father), Laurette Racine (mother), Carole-Marie Allard (stepmother)
Alma mater Université de Montréal
Oxford University
Occupation Barrister and Solicitor

Mélanie Joly, PC MP (born January 16, 1979) is a Canadian lawyer, public relations expert, and politician. She is a Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada representing Ahuntsic-Cartierville and also serves as the Minister of Canadian Heritage in the present Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau. In 2013, she was a runner-up in Montreal municipal elections for the position of mayor obtaining 26.50% of the votes, trailing Mayor elect Denis Coderre. She won in Ahuntsic-Cartierville in the 2015 Canadian federal election with 46.6% of the votes cast.

Education

Born at Fleury Hospital in 1979, Joly is the daughter of Clément Joly, an accountant who was president of the Liberal Party of Canada's finance committee in Quebec and manager of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority from 2002 to 2007 and husband of Carole-Marie Allard, lawyer, journalist and member of the House of Commons of Canada representing Laval—East from 2000 to 2004.

After completing her degree in Law (Honours) at the Université de Montréal in 2001, Joly became a member of the Barreau du Québec. She subsequently received the Chevening scholarship and continued her studies at the University of Oxford where she obtained a master's degree (Magister Juris) in comparative and public law in 2003.[1] Joly also interned at Radio-Canada, in 2007.[2]

Career

At the beginning of her career, Joly practiced law at two major Montreal law firms, Stikeman Elliott and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg. At the latter firm, her mentor was former Parti Quebecois Premier Lucien Bouchard, who supplied her with a letter of recommendation for her Oxford application.[3] She worked primarily in the areas of civil and commercial litigation, bankruptcy and insolvency law. She was also a prosecutor before the Gomery Commission of inquiry.[4]

She then made the leap into the world of communications and was quickly appointed managing partner of the public relations firm Cohn & Wolfe's Montreal.[1] In 2013, she was appointed to head the Quebec Advisory Committee for Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Passionate about public policy, she along with her colleagues founded Generation of Ideas, which is a political forum for 25- to 35-year-olds.[5] She is also a member of the collective group Sortie 13, where she penned a contribution entitled "Les villes au pouvoir ou comment relancer le monde municipal québécois".[6]

In June 2013, Joly announced her candidacy for mayor of Montreal in light of the elections which occurred in the same year. On November 3, election day, she obtained 26.50% of the votes, finishing second to current mayor Denis Coderre and ahead of several more established challengers.[7]

In 2015, she left municipal politics and announced her candidacy for the nomination of the Liberal Party of Canada in the new electoral district of Ahuntsic-Cartierville for the 2015 federal election.[8] However, during the 2011 federal election campaign, Joly donated $250 to Conservative Party of Canada candidate Larry Smith.[9]

Other activities

In addition to her professional activities, Joly is heavily involved in the philanthropic sector. In 2010, she became the first Quebecker to receive the Arnold Edinborough award, which recognizes philanthropic involvement within the Canadian cultural community.[10] To this day, she is spokesperson for Logis Rose-Virginie and ambassador for La rue des Femmes.

Joly has served on several committees and boards of directors (see list below). These roles allowed her to contribute towards making Montreal and its communities shine.

On October 15, 2014, she published her first book entitled Changer les règles du jeu. This publication dealt with the imbalance of power between the different levels of government and the division between political powers and the population. It also discussed other issues such as climate change, public transportation and the growth of social inequalities.

References

  1. 1 2 "Mélanie Joly". LinkedIn. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  2. ↑ "Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly once interned at Radio-Canada". CBC.ca. 2015-11-07. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  3. ↑ Campbell Clark, Liberal newcomers could bring wide-ranging experience to Trudeau's cabinet, The Globe & Mail, October 31, 2015.
  4. ↑ "À PROPOS DE MÉLANIE JOLY". Le vrai changement pour Montréal - groupe Mélanie Joly. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Frigon, Gaétan (2013-06-01). "Mélanie qui? Mélanie Joly". La Presse. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Joly, Mélanie. "Les villes au pouvoir ou comment relancer le monde municipal québécois". Sortie13. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  7. ↑ "Élections municipales 2013 - Résultats | ICI.Radio-Canada.ca". Radio-Canada.ca. Retrieved 2015-08-17.
  8. ↑ De Grandpré, Hugo (February 19, 2015). "Mélanie Joly dans Ahuntsic: des libéraux réitèrent leur intention d'être candidats". La Presse. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  9. ↑ Marquis, Melanie (14 August 2015). "Potential Liberal star candidate Melanie Joly donated to Tories in 2011". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  10. ↑ "Business for the Arts — Previous Winners". www.businessforthearts.org. Retrieved 2015-08-17.

External links

29th Ministry – Cabinet of Justin Trudeau
Cabinet Post (1)
Predecessor Office Successor
Shelly Glover Minister of Canadian Heritage
November 4, 2015-present		 Incumbent
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